Former Softball Star Overcomes Multiple Battles with Cancer

If you were to create a Mount Rushmore of South Carolina Softball’s greatest players, former shortstop Tiffany Tootle (1990-93) might be one of the first faces etched in stone because of the plays she made at shortstop and her record-setting career as a hitter as well as her hard-nosed and competitive nature. That determination and grit paid off later in life when she battled through a pair of different bouts with cancer, starting in 2021 when she was diagnosed with breast cancer and a year later was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, a type of blood cancer that originates in bone marrow.

“After COVID hit, I was on the cancer train for a while,” said Tootle, who completed her stellar career at South Carolina as the only three-time All-American. “When I was first diagnosed with breast cancer, I was surprised because nobody in my family had ever had it. I thought, this is crazy but we’re going to take care of it and do what we have to do. I told the doctors, if you need to take ‘em, then take ‘em because my modeling career is over.”

She went through radiation treatments after surgery and would make return trips to her oncologist frequently.

“I’d go back for tests and my white blood cell counts would never go up, and they were starting to dwindle down,” Tootle recalled. “That’s when they found out that I had the leukemia, and the oncologist felt like it was pretty well advanced.”

Tootle then went to MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, and was there for ten months in 2023.

“When we got there, my doctor there said, ‘you don’t have any time,’” Tootle said. “He told me that with just chemotherapy I’d have a 45-percent chance of survival. He said that if we could do a bone marrow transplant, and if it’s successful, then I’ll give you a 60-percent chance. That was pretty shocking to hear. I didn’t have any time to waste. Within five days of going out there to get a second opinion, I was put in the hospital and starting chemo.”

She was told that she would likely have to have three rounds of chemotherapy over a three-month period, but 28 days after her first round, tests showed she was cancer-free.

“I said, we don’t need to do another biopsy, the Lord has healed this body!” Tootle said. “There was a miracle performed. My doctor didn’t say it was a miracle, but he said that was the only way it could have happened with as much leukemia I had in my body. He still did two more rounds of chemo. I was fortunate because they didn’t find a (bone marrow) donor for me anywhere in the United States, and they finally found a donor in Germany.”

Adapting to challenges is nothing new for the Reidsville, Georgia native. She came to South Carolina after playing slow pitch softball in high school as schools around that time were in the early stages of moving to fastpitch, but that didn’t matter.

“I think Coach (Joyce) Compton took a chance on me because I was fast and because of my defensive skills,” Tootle said.

She ended her playing days as the NCAA’s all-time leader in hits (351) and runs scored (207) and both are still South Carolian records today. In 1992, she set all-time national records for hits (123) and runs scored (72) in a season and finished her career holding nearly a dozen Gamecock records, many of which still stand today, including a program record .432 batting average. She was inducted into the USC Association of Lettermen’s Athletics Hall of Fame in 2006.

“One of my favorite memories was about us just sticking with our guns, so to speak, because the program was discontinued after my first year,” Tootle said. “They were going to drop it because we were going into the SEC, and softball wasn’t an SEC-sponsored sport back then. We rallied and petitioned and were reinstated. We just stayed together as a team and fought. That was a memory that was a life-lesson for me.”

That drive carried over into her life after college. After earning her degree in physical education, she went into coaching, first as a graduate assistant while earning her master’s at Trenton State University in New Jersey, and then helped start the softball program at North Florida Community College in Madison where she coached for three years, and then she led the Columbus State University (Ga.) program from nine years, winning a pair of Peach Belt Conference regular season titles and advancing to the Division II Women’s College World Series in 2007. She later came back and spent a year as a volunteer assistant with Compton at South Carolina.

“What I loved about coaching was having the opportunity to lead young ladies,” Tootle said. “I enjoyed having an influence on them and lead them in a direction when their playing career was over.”

She played three years of women’s majors, before there were professional leagues and played in the Olympic Festival before the sport was added to the Olympics in 1996. She also spent time at Edisto Island working in the rental business and for the local yacht club. Now in remission, Tootle is enjoying retirement, and enjoyed coming back to her alma mater this year to see the 2025 softball team host the NCAA Regional and Super Regional under first year head coach Ashley Chastain Woodard, whom she had recruited to play for her at Columbus State, and reflected on her journey.

“I was scared when I first went to Texas after my leukemia diagnosis,” Tootle said. “There was a lot of praying, but I never thought, why me? I just knew in my head that whatever it was, that we were going to pray and push through it. It is so amazing to see how the Lord works. In the softball world, He has allowed me to live long enough to see things come full-circle. Ashley played for me at Columbus State for one year, and she asked if she could go with me when I came back to help out at South Carolina. Now she’s our coach!

“My message to others would be that no matter what you are struggling with, raise your head up, look up, and pray. Whatever you need, He will provide. Also, surround yourself with people who love and care about you. You can’t do it all on your own.

“I have learned to plan for the future but live for today!”